Representative Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) said this week that white male members of the military could be a threat to the country, as most members of this demographic did not vote for Joe Biden for president.
Cohen made the remarks on CNN, after anchor Jim Sciutto asked him about former members of the military and law enforcement who took part in the January 6 breaching of the Capitol. Sciutto asked the congressman if he believed members of the National Guard assigned to protect the Capitol during the inauguration of Joe Biden pose an “insider threat.”
Cohen replied that 75 percent of the Guard protecting the Capitol “are in the class that would be the large class of folks who might want to do something.”
“I was reading about this on my Twitter account, I guess, and people were reminding people of Anwar Sadat and Indira Gandhi who were killed by their own people. I was thinking, the guard is 90 some odd percent, I believe, male,” the lawmaker told Sciutto.
“Only about 20 percent of white males voted for Biden. You have got to figure that the guard, which is predominantly more conservative and I see that on my social media, and we know it, they are probably 25 percent of the people that are there protecting us who voted for Biden,” Cohen continued.
“The other 75 percent are in the class that would be the large class of folks who might want to do something. And there were military people and police who took an oath to defend the Constitution and to protect and defend it who didn’t do it who were in the insurrection. So it does concern me. But the vetting at the last minute…”
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At this point, Sciutto pushed back at the idea that voting for Trump would automatically make someone an insider threat. He said, “to have voted for Trump does not make you an insider, I mean, that is far different from being a threat of violence inside, whether the National Guard or law enforcement.”
The anchor asked his guest if he had any evidence to suggest the existence of a broad insider threat, to which Cohen responded: “Actually not, Jim. But you draw a circle of people who work for Trump and not for Biden as far as people who would be within the zone of folks who you would be suspect of. The suspect group is large.”
According to a New York Times exit poll, however, 38 percent of white men voted for Biden, higher than the 25 percent figure Cohen claimed.
Harrison Fields, communications director for Representative Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) was among the many voices who fired back at Cohen’s comments.
“Disgusting. These courageous men & women don’t see a red or blue America they see the United States of America. 100% of the @USNationalGuard are currently protecting your dumbass at the U.S. Capitol—pretend for just a second to appreciate their sacrifice. Apologize, @RepCohen,” he tweeted.
Cohen’s remarks serve as another reminder that the Left sees as a threat the fact that more members and veterans of the U.S. military lean conservative than liberal. This is why they are trying to purge the ranks of those deemed guilty of “right-wing extremism” or belonging to “hate groups.”
The leftist outlet Politico has stated what, for the Left and the establishment, is the dilemma: “The overall problem of right-wing extremism has dogged the military for decades and tends to be more severe when there is a rise in wider society.”
Mark Pitcavage, a “specialist” on far-right groups for the Anti-Defamation League, said to the House Armed Services Committee last year that “the number of extremists in the military has increased due to a higher percentage of white supremacists attempting to join the military and the development of white supremacist leanings among some currently-serving personnel.”
“To an even greater degree than in previous surges of extremism,” he added, “the Internet has played a role in the present one, with extremist content found on websites, discussion forums, chat rooms, social media, messaging apps, gaming and streaming sites, and other platforms.”
Expect the Biden administration to roll out fancy new “social justice” programs designed to “root out extremists,” by which they will mean eliminating members of the military who actually love their country and actually want to uphold the Constitution.
